Microsoft Changing Mailbox Restore Method for Exchange Online

This is one of those tools where I know more than one of you will use.

Microsoft added another recovery method that IT pros can try when they need to restore accidentally deleted Exchange Online mailboxes.

It can be done using a newly added "New-MailboxRestoreRequest" PowerShell cmdlet, which Microsoft announced this week. It's sort of a last-ditch approach when traditional restore operations via the Office 365 Admin Portal or premises-based Active Directory don't work.

Typically, a deleted Exchange Online mailbox can still be recovered within 30 days. Microsoft describes the traditional way to restore such a deleted mailbox in this Knowledge Base article. However, this so-called "soft recovery" action sometimes doesn't work due to corrupt accounts. A soft recovery operation also does not work if the account was permanently deleted. In such cases, IT pros can try using the New-MailboxRestoreRequest PowerShell cmdlet.

Essentially, the New-MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet assigns the globally unique identifier (GUID) that was associated with the deleted mailbox to a new target mailbox as a way of restoring the mailbox. Microsoft's announcement describes the PowerShell syntax that's needed to carry out such an operation.